Congratulations

In AFL, before playing in your debut you are presented with your 1st game jumper, however, in rugby and some other sports debutants receive their 1st cap.

Despite what is actually presented it’s a massive honour that you cherish for the rest of your life.

For one reason or another the Canadian rugby team stopped handing out their debut caps to first game players for a while, and are now in the process of retrospectively handing them out to the players that didn’t receive due recognition of their 1st cap.

Mike Pyke is one such player, and finally received his last Saturday afternoon many years after making his Canadian rugby debut.

Jude Bolton, Nick Smith and myself witnessed ex-Swans/Demons/Hawks player (now All Blacks assistant coach) Michael Byrne present it to him.

I know that it’s something Pykey worked incredibly hard for and reaffirms the importance of placing a value on someone playing their first game, and dually recognising it at the time.

Well done Pykey!

Volkswagen Pump-Up Playlists

Last week all Swans players were given special blue Volkswagen headphones.

They’re really cool with the VW logo on the sides and you might have seen the players wearing them on the weekend (myself included).

You may have even seen club mascot Cyggy on game day rocking away with his own pair on too.

They are part of an initiative that Volkswagen has devised for the players where fans are invited to make playlists for us.

We have special MP3 players that will download these playlists and we’ll be able to listen to them for pre and post training, and on game day.

It has made me think, if I was making a list of songs for players what songs would I put forward?

Well, I happen to know that Jarrad McVeigh is a big fan of Nickelback. Jarrad often wears one of his many Chad Kroeger t-shirts to training, along with his runners and jeans.

Dan Hannebery is the romantic of the footy club. On game day he likes a few pump-up songs to get him going, but he always starts off with a few romantic songs first. I recommend some Michael Bolton for Hanners amongst the more traditional pump-up songs; he’ll appreciate it and thank you for it.

Jude Bolton prefers music from his time. He doesn’t appreciate what he calls the “doof-doof music” of the modern era and therefore I recommend more familiar pump-up music for Jude from the ‘70s and ‘80s. He still maintains that not enough AFL highlight packages use the song The Final Countdown by Europe.

So there you have it. There’s a bit of help when you’re creating a few playlists. To make a playlist for us, click here.

Open Pyke

Now that I’ve congratulated Pykey on his recent achievement, I think we need to address the elephant in the room that is ‘Open Pyke’.

It has been on the website for a few days now, and I don’t know where to begin.

Maybe Andrew Gaze summed it up best: “Open Pyke??? Turn it up!”

Pyke channels his inner Oprah as he interviews Nick Smith.

Word of warning, there have been reports that some people see tumbleweed on their screen throughout the interview.

If you haven’t seen it, watch it here.

Thank you

Thank you to all the messages for my 200th against Collingwood.

It was a privilege to play the milestone game and I really appreciate all the messages I received.

I must say a special thank you to the Cheer Squad for the incredible banner too which was beyond anything I could have imagined.

My mum was so excited with the banner that, despite my insistence, she took a big part of it with her back home to Melbourne.

Quote of the week

Congratulations to Gazza Rohan on all the hard work, despite the setbacks along the way, and overcoming it all to make it back to senior football.

It was a moment that deserved the big crowd reception that it got and Jude summed it up best.

“I haven’t heard the crowd go that loud since Lewis Jetta kicked his first goal.”

Song of the week

I was going to nominate ‘Tennis Court’ by Lorde, but in the last few days they’ve been knocked off. Now, song of the week goes to;

Harlequin Dream – Boy and Bear



A final thank you to everyone who has come to watch us at the SCG this year. On the weekend we played our final SCG home and away game for the year, and with two games to go, we have a game in Geelong before our last game of the season at home at ANZ Stadium.

There may only be two games to go, but a lot is still at stake and we take nothing for granted. Sydney, Melbourne, or wherever you are around Australia, hopefully you can cheer us on.

Ted Richards
Twitter: @tedrichards25
Instagram: @tedrichards25